Latest experiment blurs the line between people and pigs
A group of international researchers has done the unthinkable.
They’ve injected human stem cells — ones that have the ability to become almost any kind of tissue or organ — into pig embryos.
And those cells “took” and began to grow organs in the fetal pigs that contained human cells.
Some researchers are calling this a “tremendous accomplishment,” while others are saying that the line has finally been blurred between “what is human and what is not.”
This is no high school lab experiment. And this is only the beginning of what we’ve been warning you about for years now.
It’s only going to get worse.
First came the reports of cows with human immune systems being produced on a ranch in South Dakota.
Then came word of a biotech company that is planning to build a giant farm growing hundreds of thousands of human-pig hybrids. Those backing this proposed Frankenswine ranch said the plan was to grow “human” organs that could be used for heart, liver or kidney transplants.
Now, for the very first time, researchers have created an actual human-pig “chimera.” A chimera is the mythical Greek creature that was part lion, part goat and part sheep. Who knows? Maybe they’ll start adding some goats and sheep later!
But what we do know is that we have to rely 100 percent on the word of those doing this Sci-Fi Channel experiment that these pig-human creatures were not allowed to continue developing past the embryo stage.
Even the National Institutes of Health had refused to fund this kind of pig-in-a-poke program. In 2015, the NIH announced no federal funds would be used for these specific kinds of experiments.
But that NIH ban hasn’t stopped private foundations from paying researchers to go ahead with experiments of this sort.
This is brand new territory… with the potential to get out of control very quickly.
Of particular concern is whether some of those human cells might take hold in the brains of pigs or other animals, giving them some ability to think like people do.
According to the lead researcher in this new experiment, which was done at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif. and reported in the journal Cell, no human cells ever appeared in the brains of these chimeras.
So he says…
Of course, those who believe that experiments like these are dangerous — and that they take a giant leap into the unknown before realizing what the outcome might be — are being told they’re just “anti-science” and should step aside.
But even those who appear to support this sort of thing are having reservations now that it has become a reality.
Paul Knoepfler, a stem-cell biologist at the University of California Davis, thinks they can offer “a unique window into human development.” However, he added the possibility that a chimera human enough to have transplantable organs might have “too many” human cells in its brain.
And just how many brain cells — or human cells — could be considered too many? “Nobody really knows,” he says.
Some scientists and academics (certainly, not all by a long shot) want you to think such efforts will fix the problem of critical organ shortages. Or that this is how we’ll find out if new drugs are safe.
But playing God will never be the answer.
“First human-pig chimeras created, sparking hopes for transplantable organs — and debate” Sharon Begley, January 26, 2017, Stat, statnews.com
